Helmet design utilizing nanocomposites

ABSTRACT

Disclosed herein is a composite structure for deflecting and spreading kinetic energy transmission after various types of impacts utilizing nanocomposites. The structure has a first composite layer including a discrete reinforcement and a continuous binder. The first composite layer is an outside layer that comes in contact with an object. The structure has at least one subsequent composite layer that is adjacent to the preceding layer and includes a discrete reinforcement and a continuous binder. The discrete reinforcement is made of particles and can have varying sizes and materials. In one embodiment, the particles in layer reinforcements have a progressively smaller size than preceding layers.

PRIORITY

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/442,469, filed 14 Feb. 2011, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to safety helmet design and more specifically to reducing kinetic energy transmission after various types of impacts by utilizing nanocomposites.

2. Introduction

In the United States, hundreds of thousands of people each year are involved in athletic, cycling or motorcycle accidents resulting in head injury. Much of the subsequent damage is caused by the transmission of kinetic energy to the brain, as well as shear forces. Although existing bicycle helmets reduce deaths and brain injuries, current designs focus more on aesthetics and aerodynamic performance than safety, in part due to market demands. In addition, the helmet industry is essentially self-regulating and therefore not likely to make significant improvements to helmets unless the improvements prove to be cost-effective and/or markedly more effective. Advances in polymeric materials provide novel approaches to helmet design and construction. Significant improvements in viscoelastic (active) dampening, low loss elastomers, and gradient rigidity materials have already given rise to enhanced athletic equipment and protective gear.

Crashes and impacts to the head in sports often result in head trauma due to the rigid construction of helmets. The severe consequences of concussive brain injuries have become increasingly recognized in many sports, particularly recently in professional football and ice hockey. It has also long been recognized that boxers often suffer significant cognitive decline, even in non-professional contests where protective head gear is required. Professional and college sports teams would likely switch to a new type of helmet, if such a design were clearly shown to reduce post-traumatic brain injury.

In addition to athletics, improved helmet designs have applications in the military. Brain injury is the leading cause of disability for military personnel deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although military helmet designs have improved in recent years, they are intended primarily to prevent missile/shrapnel penetration, and do little to reduce the energy transmitted to the brain, which is a major contributor to subsequent disability. The mechanisms of traumatic brain injury due to blast forces remain unclear, but brain injuries related to explosives are by far the most common cause of death and disability in Iraq and Afghanistan. Experimental evidence indicates that the use of advanced body armor may contribute to the increase in brain injuries, both by protecting against death from injury to major non-brain organs such as the lung, and possibly by transmitting kinetic energy through larger blood vessels to the brain.

Existing helmet designs do not adequately address the critical problem:kinetic energy from the impact is transmitted to the brain through primary, secondary and tertiary mechanisms. This results in concussion, brain damage and even death. Improvements in helmet design are needed.

SUMMARY

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or can be learned by practice of the herein disclosed principles. The features and advantages of the disclosure can be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or can be learned by the practice of the principles set forth herein.

Disclosed is a structure for improved safety helmet design that reduces both the kinetic energy induced by impact and rotational forces. The safety helmet will better protect the brain by limiting both direct missile trauma and secondary kinetic effects. Distributing the force that a penetrating object applies is typically accomplished by a hard shell. Metals, reinforced Kevlar or fiberglass composites traditionally have accomplished this role, but new composites offer improvement. The main failure of most headgear is that a blunt, distributed force can cause significant trauma if the force is not dissipated in other ways than transmission to the skull. The structure disclosed herein dissipates damaging forces utilizing nanocomposites. In addition to helmet design, the principles disclosed herein can also apply to other types of body armor such as chest protectors and bullet proof vests as well as buildings or other structures exposed to projectiles or explosives. The layering approach distributes the forces laterally and away from the skull based on the structure and interaction between layers in the structure.

The safety helmet or other armor has a first composite layer that receives contact of an object which results in a transfer of kinetic energy. The first composite layer is composed of a discrete reinforcement and a continuous binder. The continuous binder binds particles to one another to yield the composite in the first layer of the safety helmet. The discrete reinforcement is composed of particles having a first size. Particles can have differing sizes, shapes and can be different materials.

The safety helmet or other armor has one or more subsequent composite layers adjacent to the preceding layer that transfers kinetic energy laterally with respect to the skull. Subsequent layers are each composed of a discrete reinforcement and a continuous binder. The discrete reinforcement is composed of particles that can have differing sizes, shapes and can be different materials. The continuous binder binds particles to one another to yield the composite in subsequent layers of the safety helmet. In one embodiment, layer reinforcements have a progressively smaller size than the preceding layers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the disclosure can be obtained, a more particular description of the principles briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the principles herein are described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a side view of a safety helmet with layers each having a discrete reinforcement and a continuous binder;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary safety helmet method embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates a side view of safety helmet layers; and

FIG. 4 illustrates an alternate side view of safety helmet layers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments of the disclosure are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.

The present disclosure addresses the need in the art for improved safety helmet designs. A safety helmet design is disclosed that reduces both the kinetic energy induced by impact and rotational forces. A brief introductory description of safety helmets is provided, followed by a discussion of mathematical modeling used to optimize helmet layer design. A more detailed description of improved safety helmet designs using nanocomposites will then follow. While a helmet is used in the example embodiment, the layering principles can also be applied to a wall, body armor, a vehicle, or any protective layer that could use the principles disclosed herein. Accordingly, various embodiments of the disclosure include a wall having a series of layers and disclosed herein, body armor having the series of layers as well as a vehicle having an outer covering including the series of layers disclosed herein. The disclosure proceeds to discuss primarily a helmet embodiment.

Traditional design for both military and recreational helmets includes a rigid outer material to prevent penetration of the skull and brain, as well as some type of lining material to absorb some of the shock and to enhance comfort. However, few modern designs adequately address the critical problems leading to brain damage:kinetic energy transmitted to the brain and rotation (particularly axial acceleration/deceleration).

By using novel materials and composites that are organized upon mathematically defined principles to maximize the relative dissipation of transmitted kinetic energy, as well as to limit rotational components, the disclosed design for helmets and body armor should markedly reduce posttraumatic brain injuries from various types of insults and impacts. The initial target outcome is a set of disruptive technological advances in helmet design that improve the survivability of impact trauma to the head for use in military and civilian applications.

Stacks of various materials can be used in experiments to determine the abilities of the various materials to dissipate and spread out external forces. Mathematical modeling can be used to extrapolate from experimental data to the behaviors of actual helmets constructed of the various material stacks by constructing local models and constructing local-to-global models.

A local model refers to a mathematical model of a single cylindrical stack. Such a model allows calculation, based upon an exogenous force exerted on the top surface of the stack, the amount of force transmitted to a particular point either internal to the stack or on the surfaces of the stack.

Consider a particular stack on which is imposed a rectangular coordinate system (x,y,z). Further, suppose that the vector function F(x,y,z) represents the magnitude of the force experienced at point (x,y,z) of the stack from a known exogenous impact on the stack. Yet further, suppose that experimental data results in measurement of the value of F(x,y,z) at N particular stack points, say

(x _(i) , y _(i) ,z _(i)) (i=1, . . . , N)

Based on the geometric description of the stack, the properties of the materials composing the stack, and an analysis of the physics of force transmission through the stack, the general mathematical form of the function F(x,y,z), up to a set of parameters. For example, in a simple case, the function might have the form:

F(x,y,z)=ax+by+cz

a linear function, involving three parameters a,b,c, which must be determined. Generally, the experimental data results in an over-determination of a,b,c, so that no set of values for a,b,c exactly matches the experimental data. The best that can be done is to determine the values of a,b,c is some “optimal fashion”—that is, so that some error function is minimized. The most common such error function is the sum of squares function:

${E\left( {a,b,c} \right)} = {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{N}\left( {{F\left( {x_{i},y_{i},z_{i}} \right)} - {ax}_{i} - {by}_{i} - {cz}_{i}} \right)^{2}}$

In case F(x,y,z) is linear, as in the above example, the determination of a,b,c is just the well-known problem of linear regression analysis. However, in actual practice, the function F may involve more or fewer parameters and is generally highly non-linear, especially for materials with complicated behaviors. In such instances, the error function E is a much more complex function and the problem of minimizing the sums of the squares of the errors is a non-linear optimization problem, which we have had considerable experience addressing.

In order to proceed from the local models to actual helmets configurations, an accepted technique from finite-element analysis can be used, namely subdividing a helmet configuration into a large number of elemental configurations, the analysis of each of which can be handled by a local model, and then analyzing the interaction among adjacent elemental configurations.

For the case of the helmet configurations, the surface of the helmet can be divided into a triangular lattice. Corresponding to each triangle, a triangular prism can be obtained by a radial cut into the helmet along each side of the triangle. Each triangular prism can be regarded as embedded within a circular stack and thus subject to the analysis of a local model, which would allow an assessment of the transmission of forces between adjacent prisms in response to an exogenous force anywhere on the helmet surface.

Of particular interest would be the proportion of the initial energy which is transmitted to the bottom of the prisms, the maximum forces transmitted, and their respective locations. This information can be used to compare the effectiveness of various material stacks and helmet configurations.

Having disclosed some mathematical modeling used to optimize helmet layer design, the disclosure now turns to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, which illustrate an improved safety helmet design that reduces both the kinetic energy induced by impact and rotational forces. The safety helmet will better protect the brain by limiting both direct missile trauma and secondary kinetic effects. The safety helmet 102 receives contact of an object that transfers kinetic energy to a first composite layer 104, 202 which results in a transfer of kinetic energy. The first composite layer in the safety helmet uses a discrete reinforcement 106 and a continuous binder 108. The discrete reinforcement 106 includes particles having a first size. The safety helmet 102, 204 uses a second composite layer 110 including a discrete reinforcement 112 and continuous binder 114 adjacent to the first composite layer to transfer kinetic energy laterally with respect to the skull, the discrete reinforcement 112 having additional sizes of particles. Optionally, subsequent composite layers 116 adjacent to a preceding layer 110 are possible that transfer kinetic energy laterally with respect to the skull. Subsequent composite layers contain a discrete reinforcement 118 and a continuous binder 120. The continuous binder can be a material such as a polymer. A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units, the units typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. Polymers are both natural and synthetic materials with varying properties. Natural polymeric materials include shellac and cellulose and synthetic polymers include neoprene, PVC, silicone and more.

The discrete reinforcement in each layer is composed of particles that can have differing sizes and can be different materials such as ceramic or glass. The reinforcement includes at least one type of particle and has particles with a size greater than one micron in one embodiment. In another aspect, the particles can be of a size of 1 micron or smaller in diameter. The particles can be any spherical particulates, such as silica, carbon black, iron oxide or alumina. Alternately, they could be plates of silicates such as clays containing montmorillonite, mica or graphene. Other alternate materials can be fibers of silicates such as immogolite, carbon nanotubes, biogenic ceramic or organic crystalline fibers. The particular shape of the particles could vary depending on the application (helmet, body armor, vehicle armor, etc.). For example, the particles could be cylindrical, spherical, cubic, rectangular, pyramid shaped, etc. The continuous binder binds particles to one another to yield the composite in the first layer of the safety helmet. In one embodiment, layer reinforcements have a progressively smaller size than the preceding layers, creating multiple scales of reinforcement. A helmet can have any number of layers containing a discrete reinforcement and continuous binder and can be used in conjunction with other shock absorbing layers.

FIG. 3 illustrates a side view of safety helmet layers utilizing nanocomposites. For example, a first layer 302 comes in direct contact with an object 304, such as shrapnel from an exploded road-side bomb. The object does not necessarily contact the helmet at a 90 degree angle; any angle is contemplated such as 45 or 135 degree angles 306, 308. The method disclosed herein applies to an object contacting the helmet at any angle. The first composite layer 302 contains a discrete reinforcement 310 and a continuous binder 312. The discrete reinforcement 310 has particles of a first size such as 100 microns that are glass. The continuous binder in the first composite layer 312 is a polymer such as silicone. The discrete reinforcement 316 in the second composite layer 314 has particles of a second size such as 50 microns that are ceramic. The continuous binder 318 is a polymer and can be the same material as the binder in the first layer or can be different such as neoprene. The third composite layer 320 has a discrete reinforcement 322 that contains particles of a third size such as 10 microns and can be a mixture of glass and ceramic particles. The continuous binder in the third composite layer 324 is a polymer and can be the same or different than binders in preceding layers. The number of composite layers in a structure is variable and the provided example should not be limiting in any way. Note the presence of multiple composite layers introduces the potential for damage along the layer interfaces 328, while the impact cone 326 is blunted rapidly by stress transfer to the structure. The multiple scales of reinforcement provide an outer layer reinforced with large particles that can interact well with large objects. The force on these relatively large particles is transmitted through mediating layers of particles of decreasing size to blunt the force cone and distribute the load across the entire helmet shell.

Alternately, the discrete reinforcement contains particles that are the same size or larger than particles in the preceding layer. FIG. 4 illustrates an alternate side view of safety helmet layers. The first composite layer 408 comes in direct contact with an object 402. The object does not necessarily contact the helmet at a 90 degree angle; any angle is contemplated such as 45 or 135 degree angles 404, 406. The method disclosed herein applies to an object contacting the helmet at any angle. The first composite layer 408 contains a discrete reinforcement 410 and a continuous binder 412. The second composite layer 414 is adjacent to the preceding layer, the first composite layer 408, and the discrete reinforcement 416 contains additional sizes of particles, such as particles smaller than the particles in the first layer 410. The third composite layer 418 is adjacent to the preceding layer, the second composite layer 414, and contains additional sizes of particles, such as particles in 420 larger than the particles in the second layer 416. Particle sizes in the discrete reinforcement can vary, such as having multiple sizes of particles in a layer. The helmet structure containing layers having particles with different sizes disclosed herein can distribute a force that a penetrating object applies.

The various embodiments described above are provided by way of illustration only and should not be construed to limit the scope of the disclosure. Thus, for a claim that recites a structure that deflects and spreads kinetic energy, the structure could apply in any application disclosed herein (vehicle, helmet, body armor, building protection, etc.) as well as other structures not listed. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize various modifications and changes that may be made to the principles described herein without following the example embodiments and applications illustrated and described herein, and without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. 

1. A structure for deflecting and spreading kinetic energy, the structure comprising: a first composite layer comprising a plurality of particles, each particle of the plurality of particles having a first size, wherein the first composite layer comprises a discrete reinforcement and a continuous binder; and at least one subsequent composite layer that is adjacent to the first layer, the at least one subsequent composite layer comprising particles of a second size which differs from the first size.
 2. The structure of claim 1, wherein the first composite layer is an outside layer that comes in contact with an object.
 3. The structure of claim 1, wherein the particles in the first composite layer are ceramic.
 4. The structure of claim 1, wherein the particles in the first composite layer are glass.
 5. The structure of claim 1, wherein the discrete reinforcement is at least one type of particle.
 6. The structure of claim 1, wherein the discrete reinforcement comprises particles having a size greater than 1 micron.
 7. The structure of claim 1, wherein the continuous binder binds particles together to yield the first composite layer.
 8. The structure of claim 7, wherein the continuous binder in the first composite layer is a polymer.
 9. The structure of claim 1, wherein the at least one subsequent composite layer comprises a discrete reinforcement and a continuous binder.
 10. The structure of claim 9, wherein the particles in at least one subsequent composite layer are ceramic.
 11. The structure of claim 9, wherein the particles in at least one subsequent composite layer are glass.
 12. The structure of claim 9, wherein the continuous binder in at least one subsequent composite layer is a polymer.
 13. The structure of claim 9, wherein the discrete reinforcement in at least one subsequent composite layer is at least one type of particle.
 14. The structure of claim 9, wherein the discrete reinforcement comprises particles having a size smaller than the first layer.
 15. The structure of claim 9, wherein the discrete reinforcement has a progressively smaller size than preceding layers.
 16. The structure of claim 1, wherein the structure is used in one of a helmet, body armor, a vehicle and a building. 